China says heavily guarded internment camps for Muslims which it calls vocational training centers will "gradually disappear" if there comes a day that "society does not need" them.
The camps in the far-west Xinjiang region have elicited an international outcry, with former inmates describing harsh conditions where Muslim minorities are subject to political indoctrination and psychological torture.
Human rights groups, researchers and the US government estimate that around 1 million people from the predominantly Muslim Uighur and Kazakh ethnic groups are held in the vast network of compounds.
Xinjiang Gov Shohrat Zakir declined at a news conference Tuesday to disclose the number of what he called "trainees."
However, he said the figure is far less than 1 million.
Zakir said religious activities are banned in the camps.

China says Muslim 'training' centers will slowly disappear

PTI Automatic

At its ripe old age of 30 and with half the globe using it, the World Wide Web is facing growing pains with issues like hate speech, privacy concerns and state-sponsored hacking, its creator says.
Tim Berners-Lee joined a celebration Tuesday of the Web and reminisced about where he invented it  at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research  beginning with a proposal published on March 12, 1989.
The 63-year-old Englishman is calling on governments, companies and citizens to work together, and wants the web to become more accessible to those who aren't online.
Speaking at a "Web@30" conference, Berners-Lee acknowledged that for those who are online, "the web is not the web we wanted in every respect.

At 30, World Wide Web 'not the web we wanted,' inventor says

British police say they are "aware" of a claim of responsibility by Irish dissidents with regard to the sending of letter bombs last week.
The Metropolitan Police said Tuesday that a media outlet in Northern Ireland received a claim of responsibility Monday using a recognised code word.
The group making the claim said five devices were sent, but police have so far only found four.
"The claim was allegedly made on behalf of the 'IRA,'" police said, referring to the Irish Republican Army. The IRA has been in a cease-fire for years but dissident groups are still active.
Police say they were already investigating possible dissident links to the packages, which did not cause any injuries.
The statement says counter-terrorism police are keeping an "open mind.

UK police: Irish dissidents make claim in letter bomb case

Honda is recalling about 1.2 million vehicles in North and Central America because their Takata air bag inflators can explode and send shrapnel into the passenger compartment.
The recall covers many Honda and Acura models from 2001 through 2016.
Takata used ammonium nitrate to inflate air bags.
But the chemical can deteriorate when exposed to high temperatures and humidity, blowing apart a metal canister and hurling shrapnel.
At least 23 people have been killed worldwide because of the defect.
The inflators covered by this recall were used as replacement parts in recalls that began in 2014.
They contained a moisture-absorbing chemical and previously were believed to be safe.
The January explosion injured the arm of a person driving a 2004 Honda Odyssey.

Honda recalls 1.2M more vehicles with dangerous air bags

Fatal crashes of Boeing 737 Max 8 planes less than five months apart have alarmed the public, triggering a wave of groundings worldwide, but experts say reported similarities between the two disasters are not conclusive evidence of a shared cause.
The Ethiopian Airlines crash Sunday which claimed 157 lives was the second for the new Boeing plane after a Max 8 jet operated by Indonesia's Lion Air plunged into the Java Sea in October, killing 189 people.
Jakarta-based aviation expert Gerry Soejatman said airlines are being inundated with calls from travelers which along with governments grounding Max 8 fleets "shows that the public is scared."
Aviation experts contacted by Associated Press said only flight data recorders can provide conclusive evidence about what caused the Ethiopian Airlines crash.

Boeing crashes alarm travelers, groundings snowball

Pakistan's foreign minister says "progress has been made" at ongoing peace talks in Qatar between the Taliban and the US that have stretched over two weeks.
Shah Mahmood Qureshi spoke on Tuesday at a news conference with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas in Islamabad.
Qureshi didn't elaborate, though he added: "Pakistan has encouraged all factions within Afghanistan to sit together and have a meaningful intra-Afghan dialogue."
The talks between US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad and Taliban representatives have gone on days longer than initially expected in Doha, the Qatari capital.
The US had asked Pakistan to assist in its efforts to find a negotiated peace with the Taliban to end the longest war in American history.
The Taliban refuse to negotiate with Kabul, which isn't taking part in the Qatar talks.

Pakistan says 'progress' made at Taliban-US talks in Qatar

Philippine troops, backed by airstrikes and artillery fire, killed several militants aligned with the Islamic State group in a new offensive in the marshy heartland of the country's south, the military said Tuesday.
Army Maj. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana said several key commanders, including a long-wanted Singaporean militant, were among the more than 100 militants who came under attack at daybreak Monday in the hilly hinterland near Shariff Saydona Mustapha town in Maguindanao province.
One soldier was killed and seven others were wounded in the firefight in the village of Inaladan, where rocket-firing air force helicopters and bomber planes pounded a militant camp before army troops came in. The militants split into groups and withdrew, Sobejana said.
Sporadic gunbattles were continuing Tuesday as troops pursued the militants belonging to the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters and the Dawla Islamiya, two small groups aligned with the Islamic State group.
At least six bodies of suspected 

Philippine forces kill several militants in new offensive

A South Korean airline says it will suspend operations of its two Boeing 737 Max 8 planes, the same aircraft involved in the Ethiopian Airlines plane crash that killed 157 people.
An Eastar Jet official said Tuesday that the planes will be replaced by Boeing 737-800 planes from Wednesday on routes to Japan and Thailand.
She didn't want to be named, citing office rules.
She says the airline hasn't found any problems, but is voluntarily grounding Boeing 737 Max 8s in a response to customer concerns. She says the planes will not be used until the completion of a government safety review on the aircraft.
An official from South Korea's Transportation Ministry says it has yet to find any problems from safety reviews on Eastar's planes that started Monday.
The Mideast budget airline FlyDubai says it will continue to fly Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft after reviewing a recent US regulator statement about the aircraft.
FlyDubai says that "no further action is required at this time" over the ...

South Korean airline suspends use of Boeings

German automaker Volkswagen is saying it plans to ramp up its production of electric vehicles over the next ten years to 22 million and reduce its carbon footprint over vehicle life cycles by 30 percent.
Previously the company said it would aim for 15 million. That's ambitious considering it made fewer than 50,000 battery-only vehicles last year.
The company is pivoting to electric vehicles as it seeks to comply with new limits on carbon dioxide emissions in Europe, and a push by China for more low-emission vehicles.
The company also disclosed Tuesday that operating profit at its core Volkswagen brand, one of 12, fell to 3.2 billion euros ($3.6 billion) from 3.3 billion last year as the company faced bottlenecks certifying vehicles under new emissions tests.

Volkswagen vows to build 22 million e-cars over next decade

A British-led scientific mission to document changes taking place beneath the Indian Ocean has broadcast its first live, television-quality video transmission from a two-person submersible.
Monsoon storms and fierce underwater currents continue to present a challenge at greater depths as scientific work begins in earnest on Tuesday.
The first transmission came from 60 meters (200 feet) down. Previous deep-sea livestreams cataloguing the world's oceans have been via fiber-optic cable. The new broadcast uses cutting-edge wireless technology, sending video optically through the waves.
The Associated Press is the only news agency working with British scientists from the Nekton research team on its deep-sea mission that aims to unlock the secrets of the Indian Ocean, one of the world's least explored areas.

Indian Ocean exploration mission makes historic broadcast

US aviation experts on Tuesday joined the investigation into the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines jetliner that killed 157 people, as questions grow about the new Boeing plane involved in the crash.
The Federal Aviation Administration arrived at the crash site outside the capital, Addis Ababa, with representatives from the National Transportation Safety Board. They join an Ethiopian-led investigation.
The FFA said it expects Boeing will soon complete improvements to an automated anti-stall system suspected of contributing to the deadly crash of another new Boeing 737 Max 8 in October, and update training requirements and related flight crew manuals.
Boeing has said it has no reason to pull the popular aircraft from the skies.
The Ethiopian Airlines plane crashed in clear weather six minutes of taking off for Nairobi, and a growing number of countries and airlines have grounded the new Boeing model as a result.
One witness has told The Associated Press that smoke was coming from the ...

US joins Ethiopian-led investigation at Boeing crash site

A US envoy on religion has described China's internment of an estimated 1 million Muslims as a "horrific situation."
Sam Brownback, US ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, on Tuesday called for an independent investigation into the detentions and the release of those being held.
China has already angrily protested Brownback's remarks last week in Hong Kong criticising Beijing's polices on religious minorities and accusing the country of being "at war with faith."
China at first denied the existence of the internment camps in the far northwestern region of Xinjiang, but now says they are vocational training facilities.
In a telephone news conference with journalists, Brownback appeared undeterred by Beijing's ire, describing China's explanations as "completely unsatisfactory answers." China is listed by the US among the worst violators of religious freedom.

US envoy calls China's Muslim camps 'horrific,' wants probe

A South Korean presidential adviser says a possible North Korean rocket launch would be "catastrophic" for diplomacy on the North's nuclear programme.
US-based websites recently released satellite photographs indicating that North Korea has restored structures at its long-range rocket launch facility that it dismantled last year.
The satellite imageries were released days after the second US-North Korea summit in Vietnam ended without any agreement.
Moon Chung-in, a special adviser to President Moon Jae-in, told a panel discussion Tuesday that North Korea using a rocket launch as leverage in negotiations would be a "bad move." He says both North Korea and the US must restrain themselves to keep diplomacy alive.
Moon says the Hanoi summit showed how "difficult" and "painful" to achieve denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula.

Seoul: North Korea launch would be catastrophe for diplomacy

Officials say the Taliban killed at least 13 Afghan soldiers in battles that raged for three days in western Badghis province where insurgents overran several army checkpoints.
Jamshid Shahabi, the provincial governor's spokesman, says the fate of a dozen other soldiers is unknown.
He says the fighting erupted on Saturday in Bala Murghab district. The military carried out several airstrikes and dispatched reinforcement. Shahabi says 42 insurgents were killed and 15 troops were wounded in the fighting.
However, Mohammad Naser Nazari, a member of the provincial council, gave a higher casualty toll, saying that 20 soldiers were killed and 20 others remain missing.
The officials say the fighting has subsided with only sporadic clashes on Tuesday in remote areas of the province. The Taliban have claimed responsibility for the attack.

Afghan officials: Taliban kill 13 troops in country's west

The office of South Korean President Moon Jae-in has responded sharply to comments by a conservative lawmaker who accused him of acting as the "top spokesman" of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
The Blue House said in a statement on Tuesday that Na Kyung-won's comments were an insult to both Moon and South Koreans wanting peace and demanded an apology.
Na's speech at the National Assembly was interrupted for about 20 minutes after legislators from the ruling liberal party reacted angrily to her comments, approaching the podium and engaging in shouting matches with opposition lawmakers.
Moon has held three summits with Kim and lobbied hard to revive nuclear talks between Washington and Pyongyang, which resulted in two meetings between Trump and President Donald Trump.

Moon's office angrily reacts to Pyongyang 'spokesman' claim

North Korea's state TV has aired a documentary glorifying leader Kim Jong Un's recent visit to Vietnam that omitted the failed nuclear negotiations with President Donald Trump.
The documentary broadcast Wednesday shows a smiling Kim talking with Trump while walking together inside a Hanoi hotel last week.
It also shows Kim's black limousine passing through a Hanoi street lined with residents waving flags.
The documentary cited Kim as saying North Korea and the U.S. must put an end to their decades-long animosity and confrontation.
But it didn't mention about the lack of an agreement following the Kim-Trump summit.
The footage was released amid reports that North Korea is restoring some facilities at its long-range rocket launch site that it dismantled last year as part of disarmament steps.

N Korea airs documentary glorifying Kim's summit with Trump

An estimated 11 million people in North Korea  over 43 percent of the population  are undernourished and "chronic food insecurity and malnutrition is widespread," according to a UN report issued Wednesday.
The report by Tapan Mishra, the head of the UN office in North Korea, said that "widespread undernutrition threatens an entire generation of children, with one in five children stunted due to chronic undernutrition."
With only limited health care and a lack of access to clean water and sanitation, "children are also at risk of dying from curable diseases," the report added.
Mishra said that last year's UN appeal for $111 million to help 6 million of North Korea's most vulnerable people was only 24 percent funded, one of the lowest levels in the world.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters Wednesday that the UN humanitarian team in the country is calling for $120 million "to urgently provide life-saving aid to 3.8 million people." Without adequate funding this year, some ...

UN: 11 million North Korean need food and kids are stunted

Mark Zuckerberg said Facebook will start to emphasize new privacy-shielding messaging services, a shift apparently intended to blunt both criticism of the company's data handling and potential antitrust action.
In effect, the Facebook co-founder and CEO promised to transform the service from a company known for devouring the personal information shared by its users to one that gives people more ways to communicate in truly private fashion, with their intimate thoughts and pictures shielded by encryption in ways that Facebook itself can't read.
But Zuckerberg didn't suggest any changes to Facebook's core newsfeed-and-groups-based service, or to Instagram's social network, currently the fastest growing part of the company.
"It's not that I think the more public tools will go away," Zuckerberg said in an interview Wednesday with The Associated Press. "All indications that
Facebook and Instagram will continue growing and be increasingly important." Critics aren't convinced Zuckerberg is ..

Zuckerberg promises a privacy-friendly Facebook, sort of

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen insisted Wednesday the crisis at the southern border is not manufactured, as she faced questions from Democrats for the first time since they took control of the House.
"We face a crisis_a real, serious, and sustained crisis at our borders," she said at a House Homeland Security Committee hearing. "Make no mistake: this chain of human misery is getting worse."
Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson said he wanted to use the hearing in part to give Nielsen the opportunity to start a "serious discussion," rather than echoing President Donald Trump's claims of a security crisis at the border, and to say what she knew about the family separations last year.
He said real oversight over the border was long overdue.
"No amount of verbal gymnastics will change that she knew the Trump administration was implementing a policy to separate families at the border," Thompson said.
"To make matters worse, the administration bungled implementation of its cruel 

Homeland Security secretary insists border crisis is 'real'

Foreign leaders showered President Donald Trump and his family with more than USD 140,000 in gifts during their first year in the White House, with China and Saudi Arabia among the most lavish givers.
According to the State Department's annual accounting of such gifts, China's president gave Trump and his wife the two most expensive presents in 2017.
They were a calligraphy display worth USD 14,400 and a porcelain dinnerware set that includes plates imprinted with the pink house at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort worth USD 16,250.
The Saudis and Gulf Arab states gave at least USD 24,120 in gifts to the Trumps. Those included a USD 6,400 pendant necklace from the Saudi king and a gold-plated fighter jet model worth USD 4,850 from Bahrain's crown prince.
All gifts were turned over to the National Archives.

Foreign leaders lavish Trump with diplomatic gifts

Virgin Atlantic said Wednesday that all passengers and crew on a charter flight from Barbados to London were briefly put into quarantine because of widespread illness on board.
The airline said the 448 passengers, who were returning to Britain after travelling on the MSC Preziosa cruise ship in the Caribbean, and crew were taken to a reception centre near London Gatwick Airport for medical assessment after the plane landed.
It said "a number of customers" had "reported feeling unwell onboard" and that it is conducting a full investigation as to what happened.
A South East Coast Ambulance Service spokesman said it treated about 30 people and that three had been taken to a hospital for further checks.
The service said it responded with specialists and its Hazardous Area Response Team because passengers and crew were feeling "unwell and nauseous." A spokesman for Swiss-based cruise line MSC Cruises, which operates the ship, said the company is investigating and seeking reports from ...

AP

AP

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